Bail Money

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden argued Wednesday that the primary election victory of a gun control advocate to represent Illinois in Congress sends a message that voters won’t stand for inaction in response to shooting violence after the Connecticut school shooting.

Robin Kelly was elected Tuesday as the Democratic nominee in a Chicago-area district to replace former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., forced out in an ethics scandal. She is a strong supporter of gun control, and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s political fund poured $2 million into television ads against an opponent who had been highly rated by the National Rifle Association.

Bloomberg and Biden met Wednesday at the White House, and the mayor echoed the vice president’s assessment of the Illinois race. “Is it a harbinger of things to come? I think so,” Bloomberg told reporters outside the West Wing. He argued that “voters of this congressional district understood that they and their children and grandchildren are at risk with guns on the streets.”

The NRA argues the outcome proves nothing. NRA chief lobbyist Chris Cox told The Associated Press in an interview that Bloomberg “just spent over $2 million to hold arguably the deepest blue seat in the U.S. House, in a race where the NRA spent zero and had no involvement.”

Biden told state attorneys general gathered at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington that the Illinois race was a test case following the December shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. “For the first time since Newtown, voters sent a clear unequivocal signal,” Biden said.